![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/All-Heart-Bellet-Landgraf-Crouch-v2.jpg\")
Jason Bellet, BS 14 (left), co-founded Eko Health with Berkeley Engineering alumni Connor Landgraf, BS 13, MEng 14 (bioengineering), and Tyler Crouch, BS 14 (mechanical engineering). Photo: Courtesy Eko Health<\/p>\nIt\u2019s not hard to find examples of the lifesaving power of the digital stethoscope created by Eko Health, a company co-founded by Jason Bellet, BS 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just a few hours before being interviewed for this article, in fact, Atlanta-based physician Alexis Okoh found himself helping a patient 5,500 miles away with the help of Eko\u2019s remarkable device. A medical assistant in Ghana was examining a woman complaining of fatigue\u2014\u201can easy symptom to brush off as just being old age,\u201d explains Okoh, a non-invasive cardiologist and global health innovator. Then the assistant placed an AI-enabled Eko device on the patient\u2019s chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Within 15 seconds, Okoh heard the patient\u2019s heart and lung sounds and saw the electrocardiogram data via Eko\u2019s platform, which integrates with enterprise healthcare systems. He diagnosed her need for urgent care in less than three minutes, and just a few hours later, the patient was receiving lifesaving treatment in a hospital in Ghana\u2014a country of 35 million people but fewer than 30 cardiologists.<\/p>\n
That sort of long-distance healthcare wasn\u2019t possible before Bellet and his Eko co-founders from Berkeley Engineering\u2014Connor Landgraf, BS 13, MEng 14 (bioengineering), and Tyler Crouch, BS 14 (mechanical engineering)\u2014reimagined the humble stethoscope.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jason Bellet, BS 14 (left), co-founded Eko Health with Berkeley Engineering alumni Connor Landgraf, BS 13, MEng 14 (bioengineering), and Tyler Crouch, BS 14 (mechanical engineering). Photo: Courtesy Eko Health<\/p>\n
What was once just a rubber tube became, thanks to them, a smart device that could increase sound volume by up to 40 times, minimize background noise, and pair with the Eko app to generate and record sound waveforms and electrocardiograms. A name change in 2023 from Eko Devices to Eko Health reflects the company\u2019s evolution: It now includes FDA-cleared, AI-powered algorithms to analyze data for early detection of heart and lung disease and abnormalities\u2014all aimed at an even more audacious goal: to realize a world in which where you live doesn\u2019t determine whether you live.<\/p>\n
Says Bellet, \u201cI heard at a conference recently that AI is not going to replace physicians, but it will replace physicians who don\u2019t use AI. That\u2019s the nuance that we\u2019re trying to thread.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, Eko devices hang around the necks of more than 700,000 healthcare professionals across five continents and are used on tens of millions of patients every year\u2014delivering cardiopulmonary care at a scale never before seen. The devices hold special promise for \u201ccardiology deserts\u201d in underserved countries and throughout the U.S., where about 22 million people live in counties\u2014most of them rural and low income\u2014with no cardiologist, according to a 2024 report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.<\/p>\n
Bellet\u2019s success has made him this year\u2019s recipient of Haas\u2019 Leading Through Innovation Award, which recognizes alumni who pioneer remarkable solutions to society\u2019s most complex challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cReceiving this award is a full-circle moment, as my earliest memories building Eko are tied to my time at Haas,\u201d says Bellet, who serves as Eko\u2019s chief business officer and board director. \u201cClassmates became co-founders. Teachers became advisors. And the school became our accelerator. What started during undergrad is now an FDA-cleared platform helping millions of patients receive better care and continuing to scale globally. That kind of innovation and progress requires dedication beyond any single individual, and I\u2019m proud to use this moment to acknowledge the co-founders, team, customers, investors, and Berkeley community who made it possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Origin story<\/p>\n
When Bellet first arrived at UC Berkeley in 2010, medical device manufacturing wasn\u2019t on his agenda. He planned on studying political science and theater, disciplines that lean heavily on the capacity to create a vision and tell a compelling story. \u201cThen I took an intro to business course and fell in love with that program,\u201d Bellet says, \u201cso I transferred to Haas where, really, I got to do a mini-MBA as an undergraduate.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Across campus, Landgraf was taking a senior thesis class with Professor Amy Herr on medical device development: identifying health problems, thinking through technical solutions, and appreciating the complexity of the regulatory business model. Landgraf landed on the stethoscope, used billions of times annually to check heart and lung sounds. He wondered if he could turn the 200-year-old device into \u201cthe Shazam of heart sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/All-Heart-Jason-with-Patient-1100x770.jpg\")
Heart disease is the world\u2019s No. 1 killer and disproportionately impacts underserved communities. Here, a patient at Wayne General Hospital in rural Mississippi is assessed using an Eko stethoscope with AI support. Eko Health and the hospital recently announced a partnership. Photo:\u00a0Courtesy Eko Health\u00a0<\/p>\n
Like Shazam, the popular song-identification app, Landgraf thought a digital stethoscope could be a real-time database of heart sounds, helping healthcare providers conducting routine exams to accurately diagnose early signs of heart disease, like atrial fibrillation, structural murmur, and low ejection fraction (the percentage of blood leaving the heart each time it squeezes). Landgraf asked Crouch, an undergraduate engineer and self-taught software developer, to create a prototype.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crouch describes the initial device as a basic connector. \u201cIt was essentially this 3D-printed digital stethoscope adapter with a mobile app to see the data,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Jason had persistence and was thoughtful in the way he approached people, so they wanted to help him. And they believed in what he was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diane Dwyer, BS 87<\/p>\n
Landgraf, a former student government president, had attended campus political events coordinated by Bellet and says he respected \u201chis gumption and organization as a student leader.\u201d Bellet\u2019s obvious expertise in communicating a vision would complement the engineering and strategy work already underway by Crouch and Landgraf.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some level, storytelling is the most essential skill to almost any innovation,\u201d says Landgraf, \u201cbecause it\u2019s your ability to translate what\u2019s cerebral and technical into something that\u2019s approachable, that can spread and engage. And that\u2019s an incredible skill set Jason brings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2013, Landgraf pitched Eko to Bellet, then a junior, but Bellet\u2019s senior year and next chapter were already mapped out. \u201cI had planned on doing some student government work, then I was headed to Deloitte to do consulting,\u201d Bellet says with a laugh. \u201cBy the middle of my senior year, helping Tyler and Connor on Eko, I knew: Eko was going to be the next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Old soul, new technology<\/p>\n
In 2014, investors were initially skeptical of the young trio seeking to translate their rough prototype into a manufactured device. At the time, many of the startups competing for investor attention were pitching software via apps, says Crouch. Eko, on the other hand, was making hardware, circuitry, and software in a medically regulated space. \u201cThe youngest group to have gotten the type of FDA clearance we needed for Eko was in their late 30s,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bellet, however, was undaunted by the challenge of sharing a convincing vision for a product in its infancy. He thanks his Haas courses, specifically Innovations in Communications and Public Relations, taught by Diane Dwyer, BS 87, for his confidence. The class pairs students with entrepreneurs to shape their companies\u2019 PR and communications and to help solve issues using design-thinking methodology. Bellet drew on that experience to create the first news release for Eko.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Left:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/All-Heart-CORE-500-placement-and-SENSORA_app_result-1-1100x650.jpg\")
Peer-reviewed studies show that versus standard care, Eko\u2019s AI-enabled stethoscopes detect significantly more heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and heart valve disease. Photos: Courtesy Eko Health<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we pitched it to a bunch of local media and The New York Times, and we got stories on it,\u201d he says, recalling his astonishment.<\/p>\n
Dwyer wasn\u2019t surprised. An award-winning former broadcast journalist, she occasionally advises the Eko team on its PR and communications strategy. \u201cEven at that young age, Jason had a level of patience and presence that most people don\u2019t achieve until their 40s, if ever,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s an old soul developing new technologies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I heard at a conference recently that AI is not going to replace physicians, but it will replace physicians who don\u2019t use AI. That\u2019s the nuance that we\u2019re trying to thread.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jason Bellet, BS 14<\/p>\n
Bellet obtained early support for Eko from Mayo Clinic\u2019s chair of cardiovascular diseases and the chair of Stanford\u2019s department of medicine. \u201cThose people are busy, and they\u2019re not going to pick up the phone for a 22-year-old kid,\u201d Dwyer says. \u201cBut they did. Jason had persistence and was thoughtful in the way he approached people, so they wanted to help him. And they believed in what he was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The early buzz was essential to Eko\u2019s success. \u201cThat first press coverage fed investment, which then fed more stories, and so on,\u201d says Bellet. \u201cI think PR, comms, and storytelling for a precommercial, premanufacturing stage is critical. Obviously, the technology has to be there, and the product has to be there. But what could have made or broken Eko early on was getting people behind the vision.\u201d<\/p>\n
SkyDeck support<\/p>\n
In fall 2013, the Eko trio was given space at UC Berkeley\u2019s SkyDeck accelerator, an opportunity that was an early catalyst for the company. In 2015, the Eko co-founders were named to Forbes\u2019 30 Under 30 list in healthcare, and Time magazine named the Eko CORE digital stethoscope, the first FDA-cleared stethoscope that functions as both analog and digital, as one of the 25 best inventions of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got so much out of being part of SkyDeck,\u201d says Bellet, \u201cfrom introductions to investors to the literal office space and credibility it gave us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bellet felt so strongly about the importance of SkyDeck\u2019s support to the success of Eko Health that he signed the UC Berkeley Founders\u2019 Pledge, which enables company founders, equity holders, or investors to make a nonbinding commitment to give back to UC Berkeley when they attain success.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pledge reflects my commitment to give back to Berkeley as Eko grows,\u201d says Bellet. \u201cI want to honor the school that played such a critical role in our journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Culture meets the moment<\/p>\n
As time passed and the Eko team outgrew SkyDeck, it found its own office space in Berkeley. By late 2019, the company was ready to level up and leased a larger space in Oakland. But move-in day in March 2020 fell on the first day of the Bay Area COVID quarantine, and only a few critical employees would be allowed to enter, for months, while everyone else pivoted to remote work.<\/p>\n
Crouch says Bellet\u2019s leadership created the cohesion needed for consistency and team morale at a delicate stage in Eko\u2019s development. \u201cHe helped the culture push through,\u201d says Crouch, \u201cdespite how unsettling that time was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bellet recalls the pandemic as the chance to demonstrate how Eko\u2019s culture included the ability to quickly innovate. By 2020, he says, \u201cWe had a commercial product, but the demand for our product grew by 10 times overnight because we were the only stethoscope on the market that could livestream heart and lung sounds under protective gear.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But healthcare providers wearing full personal protective equipment and \u201cmasked up like astronauts\u201d had a hard time putting a standard stethoscope in their ears. \u201cOur customers needed us to adapt the product,\u201d says Bellet.<\/p>\n
Within four weeks, Eko crafted a version of its device without the tubing. Essentially, Bellet says, \u201cWe were able to put the stethoscope in a case, put the case onto the patient, and then Bluetooth-stream the heart sounds to the healthcare provider\u2019s AirPods under the protective gear.\u201d<\/p>\n
All the while, the Eko team remained on lockdown. The company got state exemptions to operate as an essential business, and some employees worked around the clock: Warehouse workers fulfilled increased demand; manufacturing sourced aggressively from different vendors to overcome global supply chain issues.<\/p>\n
Bellet\u2019s ability to support a team going through an unprecedented time allowed it to grow and soar during the pandemic. \u201cThat, to me, was when Eko went from early-stage startup DNA to a real growth-stage company, very fast,\u201d says Bellet. \u201cWe went from 20 people to 60 people in about a year and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Bellet stresses that this story\u2019s heroes aren\u2019t the medical device manufacturers who adapted quickly: \u201cWe were one step back from the front lines of care, where the real leadership and bravery were from emergency department doctors and the folks using our products, going into COVID wards without vaccines. But to play even a small part in that was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
A long view of the future<\/p>\n
Today, the company is based in Emeryville, Calif., and has about 100 employees. Eko continues to gain accolades for its CORE products, which include two digital stethoscopes and an attachment that transforms an analog stethoscope into a digital one. One measure of the company\u2019s trajectory: 10 years after Eko CORE made Time\u2019s best inventions list, the magazine put Eko Health on its list of the world\u2019s top health tech companies of 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More importantly, peer-reviewed studies keep proving the efficacy of Eko products. In January, The Lancet published a paper showing that in patients examined with AI-enabled stethoscopes over the course of a year, detection versus standard care was more than double for heart failure, more than triple for atrial fibrillation, and almost double for heart valve disease.<\/p>\n
Today, Eko devices hang around the necks of more than 700,000 healthcare professionals across five continents and are used on tens of millions of patients every year\u2014delivering cardiopulmonary care at a scale never before seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bellet\u2019s innate patience and persistence are currently at work expanding the reach of Eko\u2019s enterprise-level AI platform for disease detection, called SENSORA. Landgraf says Bellet is an expert at successfully explaining to buyers that innovating health systems is extremely complicated and takes time. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is doggedly pursuing those relationships, refining the strategy consistently over a long period of time, keeping that North Star in mind of what Eko is trying to create and the role that it can play for those specific health systems,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd he\u2019s had some incredible successes.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Where might Eko\u2019s path lead next? Bellet says that just as the iPhone became a marketplace for applications, algorithms can be built to allow Eko devices to screen for a spectrum of cardiac and pulmonary conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a pipeline of about 10 diseases that we\u2019re currently working on with pharma companies and device companies to screen,\u201d he says. \u201cGo out another 10 years, and there are probably 50 different diseases you can screen for using heart and lung sounds\u2014from pneumonia to pulmonary hypertension to tuberculosis to a variety of cardiac rhythm abnormalities and super rare conditions that are hard to diagnose.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bellet knows changes in healthcare can move at a frustratingly slow pace. But the constant examples of Eko products saving lives make persevering worth it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see our innovation move from idea to prototype to something now used by clinicians around the world to impact care for the better gives me a profound sense of purpose,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd to do it alongside my co-founders and a team like ours is the honor of a lifetime.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not hard to find examples of the lifesaving power of the digital stethoscope created by Eko Health,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-302577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}